Stephen Harper Brought This Mess on Himself

During the bid for leadership of what was then the Alliance party, Stephen Harper attacked Stockwell Day for exploiting his fundamentalist supporters.

Across the country Christian extremists had joined Day's team and were promoting him from their pulpits.

Then when Harper discovered that the Campaign Life Coalition were illegally selling memberships for Day from their website, he cried foul.

"My view it that the purpose of a Christian Church is to promote the message and the life of Christ. It's not to promote a particular political party or candidacy." he told the Ottawa Citizen. (1)

But then after winning the leadership he had a complete change of heart and embraced every extreme religious group he could find, many of them backed up with American dollars.

Now they are the ones calling the shots and Harper is stuck with them, running up and down the halls of Parliament Hill, speaking in tongues and reading clocks, and he has no idea what to do about them.

And unfortunately it's Canadians who now have to clean up the mess, but many are suggesting that it's too late. The Religious Right are far too organized, and this brand of Evangelism does not take a vow of poverty.

If these religious groups promoted a Christian message it would be different. Things like social justice, respect for humanity and common decency. But they don't. Theirs is a message of hate where citizens are marginalized.

Tommy Douglas was an evangelist and gave us Medicare. Lester Pearson was an evangelist and gave us the Peacekeepers. But those are two things that this new brand of Christianity (fortunately not embraced by most Christians) want to get rid of. Free health care promotes idleness they claim and is a socialist scheme, while Peacekeepers stand in their way of annihilating the Muslims.

It's ugly and it may be here to stay, because Harper wanted power so bad he sold his soul to these devils, and Canada was the prize.

From Random House about Marci McDonald's new book, The Armageddon Factor:

For anyone who thinks the Christian right could never take root in Canada the way it has in the United States, McDonald's book is a timely wake-up call. Having watched the growth of the American religious right as a former Washington bureau chief for Maclean's, she sees the unmistakable signs of a similar phenomenon taking root here.

"For years, I heard academics and the mainstream media in Washington dismiss the Christian right as a passing political fad, constantly penning its obituary," she says. "When they woke up to the reality of its organizing prowess, it was already too late: the Christian Coalition had effectively taken over the Republican party and both houses of Congress and would go on to put George W. Bush in the White House."

In a riveting portrait of a parallel culture that has largely escaped the mainstream media's radar, The Armageddon Factor shows how Harper's government has worked with the religious right across denominational and faith lines to bring about radical changes that will reshape the country for years to come. In four short years, it has:

- Revamped the nation's judicial system and altered the makeup of federal courts to put them on a more socially conservative track

- Defunded women's and foreign aid groups that criticize government policy, especially in the Middle East

- Promoted the growth of faith-based education by doling out more than $56 million in economic stimulus funds to a dozen private Christian colleges and universities

- Refused to fund abortion as part of its G8 initiative on maternal and child care

- Fostered a sophisticated program set up by a private evangelical university to train a new generation of Christian college students for jobs in government and the public service, complete with internships in the prime minister's office, where two of Harper's top advisors are former activists in the Christian right.

Readers may also be shocked to learn that some Christian nationalists with close ties to the government are driven by the conviction that Canada has a biblically pre-ordained role to play in the final days before the Battle of Armageddon and the Second Coming of Christ. Convinced that those end-times are now at hand, they are agitating to turn the country into an officially Christian nation, governed by biblical literalists according to the principles of the Scriptures.

All of this in order to fulfill the Old Testament prophecy they see lurking in the national motto taken from Psalm 72: 8: "And He shall have dominion from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth." (2)

I can't believe he's done this to us.

I was pleased to learn that Random House is allowing Canadians Rallying to Unseat Harper, to publish the first Chapter of McDonald's book on our website. This is such an honour.

Sources:

1. The Armageddon Factor: The Rise of Christian Nationalism in Canada, By: Marci McDonald, Random House Canada, 2010, ISBN: 978-0-307-35646-8

2. Veteran journalist says Stephen Harper is openly cultivating the support of the Canadian religious right, By Adria Iwasutiak, Senior Publicist, Random House of Canada, May 11, 2010